It’s a fair point, but it can also be pushed too far and get wielded as a cudgel against reporters describing reality. It can be an attempt by activists, often with good faith motives, to erase inconvenient truths about their movement.

But that instinct on the left to shape the narrative of the protests pales in comparison to how the Trump administration and its media and social media cheering squads tried to reframe the Monday assault by denying that tear gas was used and alleging a level of violence that nobody witnessed. (The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention categorizes a range of chemical agents used by police for crowd control as "tear gas." Whether someone is hit with chloroacetophenone [CN] or chlorobenzylidenemalononitrile [CS] or some other chemical weapon, the point is to incapacitate the target and cause him to flee. It works.)

The efforts to spread a false defense for actions that were broadcast live and shocked America’s closest allies was some Tiananmen-level memory-holing. (Though, to be clear, there is no comparison between the massacre in Tiananmen Square, where thousands were killed and a democracy movement was extinguished, and what happened in Lafayette Square.)

Overnight on Monday the police constructed an 8-foot black fence around the park, essentially adding Lafayette Square as a large buffer zone protecting the White House. Police in green fatigues, perhaps from the National Guard, now formed an even thicker line behind the fence. St. John’s Church, scrubbed and repainted, now served as a gathering spot for demonstrators. Protesters attached yellow sticky notes to the church doors with the names of victims of police violence. The protests on Tuesday were large and peaceful all day, with crowds that swelled by new supporters outraged by Monday's disturbing scenes.

Most protesters went home after the 7 p.m. curfew but a core group of largely young people remained late into the night. The groups were becoming more organized. Logistics for bringing in water and food and milk to wash out tear-gassed eyes were being coordinated. A few people seemed to be emerging from the chaotic early days of the movement as organizers and they strictly enforced a no-violence rule.

“Peaceful protests!” they yelled when things got rowdy or a water bottle was hurled.

But as the crowds dwindled after midnight, some protesters shook the new perimeter fence hard, perhaps trying to pull it down. The line of fatigued cops marched forward in unison and when the shaking didn’t stop they sprayed tear gas indiscriminately, including at at least one television crew. Dozens of people turned around and booked down the street between St. John’s Church and a boarded up luxury hotel, The Hay-Adams. People choked and vomited. One man with asthma was in severe distress and paramedics arrived to help him. I inhaled just a whiff and when I woke up on Wednesday the mucous membranes in my throat were still raw and irritated.

A police officer at the scene from the Department of Homeland Security was asked what he would call the chemical agent that the cops had been using for two days.

“Tear gas,” he said.

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